SCOOP: THE COMM ACT POW WOW – Morning Tech obtained a copy of the agenda e-mailed to participants ahead of today’s staff-stakeholder meeting on Communications Act updates. On the docket: Which provisions of the telecom-focused law – if any – can or should apply to information services? And can the FCC further any portion of its National Broadband Plan without those items? More below.

HAPPENING TODAY – The Obama administration will announce $795 million in grants and loans for 66 new stimulus broadband projects. Officials from Commerce and Agriculture say the investment will create 5,000 new jobs and spur economic development in hard-hit regions.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke says the projects – part of the $7.2 billion in Recovery Act funding set aside for broadband expansion projects -- will “put Americans back to work immediately, digging trenches, laying fiber and stringing up utility poles.” Details: http://politi.co/9SQdwm

By Tony Romm and Kim Hart

Happy Friday, and welcome back to Morning Tech. We’re unplugging our laptops a little later today in time to enjoy the holiday weekend. See you on the other side, Tuesday, July 6.

BACK TO THE COMM ACT TABLE – Sources tell us the invite list includes the same players as last week – companies like AT&T and public interest groups like Free Press. Specifically, they’ll tackle a host of questions that include: “Has this framework been successful in the wireless context? Why would it work or not work with regard to broadband services?”

OTHER QUESTIONS: “Can the FCC fully implement the National Broadband Plan’s recommendations under existing statutory authority? If not, what statutory revisions do you believe are necessary to permit the FCC to implement the plan?”

BUT LIBERALS ARE STILL UNHAPPY WITH THE PROCESS – In a letter sent Wednesday, a coalition led by MoveOn.org accused both sides of Penn Ave. of “backing away” from their open Internet commitments: “There is much talk of ‘compromise’ on this crucial issue, and reports of backroom meetings between FCC officials and lobbyists to cut a deal that would jeopardize the open Internet. Giving up on your pledge to protect Net Neutrality would be a serious and possibly irreversible mistake.”(Full letter here: http://bit.ly/9G3dno)

COMPETES ACT TO SEE SENATE TIME? – Keep an eye out for what could be a Senate staff draft of the America COMPETES Act, which passed the House in late May but has lagged in the upper chamber. A Senate Democratic aide tells Morning Tech an initial version of the bill could see circulation as soon as tomorrow – but the aide emphasized the word “could.”

FTC TARGETING SOCNETS – David Vladeck, head of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, tells Morning Tech that the agency will continue to make sure social networks take the proper security measures to safeguard personal data. Its recent settlement with Twitter signals the agency is “very serious about these data breaches,” he says. (Twitter settlement: http://politi.co/bd48eg)

“We went after Twitter because we thought their security measures were really lax,” Vladeck tells us. “Their security holds were pretty egregious. They made some really fundamental mistakes. …I think it’s important for regulated companies to know that we are looking at social networking sites and we are taking seriously our responsibility to protect privacy in that realm.”

TERRORISTS ONLINE? – Perhaps missed in this week’s flood of news was a State Department event in the Philippines on “Terrorist use of the Internet.” Leading off the discussion was Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the deputy coordinator for counterterrorism, who used her speech to stress that the Web “allows people to seek each other out anonymously; to reinforce their negative views or plan violent action.”

She said geospatial imagery, such as that provided by Google Earth or Microsoft Bing, also present challenges. “While such geospatial information systems provide amazing opportunities for the general public to view the world, the risk for abuse by bad actors anywhere in the world – whether terrorists or criminals – in planning and executing attacks is extremely high.” (Read the rest here: http://bit.ly/aVzcKV ) BEHIND USA.GOV’s FACELIFT – Visitors to USA.gov or Gobierno.gov will notice this morning that the sites now have a new, streamlined look that allows for easier access to essential information and services. That facelift complements today’s additional release of new mobile apps –offerings that include a tool to check product recalls on the go.

The cost of that web redesign? About $280,000, according to an early GSA estimate. (That figure does not include the apps featured on the site, which individual agencies funded and designed.) An official later described that as an “enormous” return on investment, considering the functionality and usability of the site.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine, not Google, powers the new USA.gov search bar. According to GSA, Microsoft won the day because the commercial provider that helped construct the redesign had a partnership with Bing, so it “by default became our search engine under that contract.” But for the Bing critics out there, rest assured: GSA plans to renegotiate that contract in the fall, so it “will be open for competition,” the agency told reporters Thursday.

DIGITAL TAX BILL – Verizon, Apple, Time Warner and the music industry have thrown their support behind a bill introduced this week by Rick Boucher and Lamar Smith that would establish a uniform national framework for taxing digital goods and services bought via the Internet. Currently, states and local districts have their own tax rules for digital goods, creating confusion for e-commerce companies and consumers. The Digital Goods and Services Taxation Fairness Act would also ensure online sellers will not pay more taxes than physical storefronts, said Braden Cox, policy counsel for NetChoice, a coalition of e-commerce firms.

“We’ve been trying to deal with this at the state level and it’s just been overwhelming,” Cox tells Morning Tech. “They each have their own definition of what a digital good or download is, so ever transaction is taxed differently.”

Verizon’s Peter Davidson: “Consumers face potential multiple and discriminatory taxation of the music, movies, games and other goods and services they download from the Internet. Discouraging Internet use makes no sense, particularly at a time when jobs and the economy are top concerns.”

CASHING IN – Lobbying firm Patton Boggs, which has a major telecom practice (with former FCC chair Kevin Martin on the payroll) has bought Breaux-Lott Leadership Group. The smaller firm counts AT&T and NAB among its clients http://politi.co/aZ2qlg.

WHITMAN TURNS TO TECH – Meg Whitman’s campaign is no longer just carpet-bombing the airwaves. She’s made major investments in other interactive technologies to ensure her win over Democrat Jerry Brown at the polls. The San Jose Mercury News reports: “A glimpse into Whitman's tech spending is startling: The latest campaign expenditure reports show she had spent $2.7 million through May 22 on website development and information technology alone — seven times more than Brown spent on his entire campaign.” http://bit.ly/9tLvCN